GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 9 



and other swimming birds ; and, if they are not quick in diving, 

 seizes them, and rises with them from the water. I have seen this 

 hawk come at the report of a gun, and carry off a teal, not thirty 

 steps distant from the sportsman who had killed it, with a daring 

 assurance as surprising as unexpected. This conduct has been 

 observed by many individuals, and is a characteristic trait of the 

 species. The largest bird that I have seen this hawk attack and 

 grapple with on the wing is the Mallard. 



" The Great-footed Hawk does not, however, content himself 

 with waterfowl. He is generally seen following the flocks of 

 pigeons, and even blackbirds, causing great terror in their ranks, 

 and forcing them to perform aerial evolutions to escape the grasp 

 of his dreaded talons. For several days, I watched one of them 

 that had taken a particular fancy to some tame pigeons, to secure 

 which it went so far as to enter their house at one of the holes, 

 seize a bird, and issue by another hole in an instant, causing such 

 terror among the rest as to render me fearful that they would 

 abandon the place. However, I fortunately shot the depredator. 



" They occasionally feed on dead fish, that have floated to the 

 shores or sand-bars. I saw several of them thus occupied, while 

 descending the Mississippi on a journey undertaken expressly for 

 the purpose of observing and procuring different specimens of 

 birds, and which lasted four months, as I followed the windings 

 of that great river, floating down it only a few miles daily. During 

 that period, I and my companion counted upwards of fifty of these 

 hawks, and killed several ; one of which was found to contain in its 

 stomach bones of birds, a few downy feathers, the gizzard of a teal, 

 and the eyes and many scales of a fish. 



" Whilst in quest of food, the Great-footed Hawk will frequently 

 alight on the highest dead branch of a tree, in the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of such wet or marshy ground as the common snipe resorts 

 to by preference. His head is seen moving in short starts, as if he 

 were counting every little space below ; and, while so engaged, the 

 moment he espies a snipe, down he darts like an arrow, making a 

 rustling noise with his wings, that may be heard several hundred 

 yards off, seizes the snipe, and flies away to some near wood to 

 devour it. 



" It is a cleanly bird, in respect to feeding. No sooner is the 

 prey dead, than the Falcon turns it belly upwards, and begins to 



